Chad prepares for GB U20 bow in Dumfries

Fife Flyers will be without Chad Smith this weekend as the youngster prepares to make his Great Britain U20 bow at the World Championship in Dumfries.

Smith, a previous GB call-up at U18 and U16 level, was named in head coach Slava Koulikov’s 20-man squad for the six-team IIHF Division 2 Group A tournament, which runs from Sunday to next Saturday at the Dumfries Ice Bowl.

GB will come up against Estonia, Japan, Korea, Netherlands and Romania as they look to secure promotion back to Division 1 of the World Championship structure.

Koulikov said: “The coaching staff had to make some tough decisions to name this squad. It proves that we have great depth and some great prospects in the GB programme.

“I am very happy with my squad but some quality players have not made the final roster.

“I think we have a well-balanced squad and competition for places was really fierce.

“We will now undergo our final preparations for next month’s tournament.

“Everyone is looking forward to the World Championship and it will be even more special with it being on home ice.”

GB begin the tournament on Sunday against Romania, followed by a game on Monday versus Estonia.

Britain play Netherlands on Wednesday, while on Thursday they go head-to-head with Korea. GB round off the competition by facing Japan next Saturday. All GB games face-off at 8.00 p.m.

Tickets for the tournament are now on sale and range from £5 for a single match ticket to £25 for the full week championship pass. There are discounts available for groups and up to two under-16s go free with every ticket-purchasing adult.

GB’s games will be shown live on FreeSports, which is available on Freeview channel 95, Sky channel 424, BT channel 95, Freesat channel 252 and TalkTalk channel 95.